Transfers (Goodbye Sister Madsen), District and Zone Meetings

Tuesday, August 28



Our day started off with a trip to the train station with Sisters Madsen and Kelson.  Sister Madsen is going to a city outside of Porto in the north of Portugal.  She spent the first half of her mission in the Algarve zone, and her new companion will be Sister Parish from Rockland, Idaho.  This will be a big change for her.  Sister Kelson traveled with her to Lisbon to pick up her new companion, Sister Hawes from the Mesa, Arizona, area.  It took Merl’s special packing skills to get four people and all the luggage in our little car. . . but we made it.  It was sad to wave goodbye to them – but we are excited to meet all the new missionaries coming to our area.

  We had a meeting scheduled this evening with a young man who asked for some help.  Merl spent preparing thoughts to share with him.  We felt the need to have someone with us to interpret.  We called the Elders. . . they said they could make arrangements in their schedule if necessary.  We also called Brother Nestor (Elder’s Quorum President), but couldn’t reach him. 

We made another trip to Olhão to finish some repairs on the two missionary apartments.  Four Elders will be coming tonight to take over the Olhão/Tavira area.  The first apartment took much longer than we anticipated, so we had to head back home before it was finished. In addition to cleaning, Merl started to do what he does well, repairing doors and dressers.  We didn’t have time to finish the projects or to take care of the second apartment.  We needed to rush back to the train station in Loulé to pick up the Sisters. 

We were introduced to Sister Hawes, and we invited them to come to the church tonight for our appointment.  Sister Hawes (this being her last transfer) was the perfect person to share the evening with us.  She knew the right things to say and was able to translate back and forth so the purpose of the meeting was accomplished.  Our next meeting will be Saturday.

We took the Sisters grocery shopping and invited them over for ice cream and cake.  They brought the cake made by Sister Candida for Sister Madsen’s birthday.  It was a much cooler evening than usual; we slept much better with a cool breeze coming in our bedroom window.  It had been a busy day!

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Wednesday, August 29

Happy birthday shout-out to Hailey Egbert!  Not sure where you are. . . but hope you had a great
day!!

Tuesday is the usual District Missionary meeting, but with the transfer and everyone traveling yesterday, the meeting was rescheduled for today.  

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Merl:  On Wednesday morning M. called and requested a blessing as he was starting a fast to ask the Lord to help him overcome his smoking addiction. I told him we would give him a blessing. I called the Elders in town and asked if they could assist and bring some oil. They agreed so we met at the church before going to Faro to District meeting. I was expecting to anoint and the Elders bless because I didn’t feel I could be understood or be able to express what needed to be said.

However, as it usually happens, M. asked that I give the blessing. I asked Elder Heiner to translate for me as needed. Oil was not used in this case. 

 As I laid my hands upon his head and just before I began to speak, I had a strange sensation/feeling and I began to speak totally in Portuguese. It was not easy for me and I stumbled in a few places, but the whole blessing was given in Portuguese without the aid of translation. I think that what was needed to be said was said, and M. said he understood the blessing.

So now  I have given my first blessing in Portuguese, I am sure assisted by the spirit. He had tears in his eyes, and I had tears in mine.  I gave him a hug and told him I would call him this evening and just check in with him to see how he was doing.

We took the Sisters with us to Faro with a dryer rack for Elder Rogers on their laps.

We met the new missionaries in our district as well as the new Elders visiting from the Olhão District (Elder White from California and Elder Rodrigues from Cape Verde, Africa).



                                    Sister Haws from Arizona                                      is now serving in   Loulé                                          with Sister Kelson.






Sister Esteban from Peru is the new Sister assigned in Faro  (with Sister Restrepo).


(Foto below:  Back row - Elders Buarque, Rogers, Vigne
Front row - Elders Rodrigues, White, Lima, Alpizar Heiner
Sisters Haws, Kelson, Restrepo and Esteban)

New missionaries for the Olhão District will be coming in later today (had to wait for a new Greenie to arrive).  We still need to get back to Olhão to finish up some apartment work.

 Today we were asked to take our Zone Leaders to Lagos tomorrow for a meeting – they are doing some car sharing and didn’t have a way to get there than on the train.  We are invited to the meeting or to find something we would like to do while there.  We will probably do some studying for the “Counsel of the Leaders of the Mission” meeting in Santarém on Friday.  It is a big city north of Lisbon – will take us about three hours each way.  All the Senior Couples are invited to attend.  We will again be taking our Zone Leaders with us. . . hopefully they can help with some of the driving.

Checked out a second-hand store – looking for a study table for the Olhão/Tavira apartment.

We took a walk around the historical area here in Loulé this afternoon.  Lots of history in this city.  We found our favorite little pottery shop and visited with the lady who has been hand painting all of the items in her shop – for 31 years.  I am just deciding on what color I want before I purchase a couple of items.  At another shop, we did find a mini Portugal Cock for our travel tree and a slice of cork tree that we liked.

We spent time reading materials that all the missionaries are asked to read and discuss before our big meeting on Friday - the chapter in Preach My Gospel entitled “How Do I Work with Stake and Ward Leaders”  and a conference talk by Elder Ulisses Soares entitled “Feed My Sheep.” There is much all members of the church should read, understand, and practice to help in the Lord’s missionary work.

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Thursday, Aug 30

First thing this morning was a drive to Faro to pick up the two new missionaries that arrived last night  (Elder Diaz from Porto – waiting for his visa to go to Tucson, Arizona and Elder Paul from Bakersfield, CA).  We were to take them to Lagos for a Zone Leadership Council meeting. We had an enjoyable ride getting to know these two young men. 

Elder Diaz and Elder Heiner were not “leaders” but companions to “leaders,” so we took them to Ponte de Piedade and to a light lunch while the others were in their meeting. 

The tide was a lot lower than when we were there previously.  People were wading and swimming between the rocks, when before the boats were weaving in and out.


We returned to the church just as the meeting was concluding.   The missionaries were clowning around wondering which church they wanted to be in.  Two churches, side by side in the complex:  A Igreja de Jesus Cristo dos Santos dos Ultimos Dias and Igreja do Espirito Santo.

We again found our cars, gassed up, and headed back to Faro.
After returning, we joined the six Elders for lunch at the Forum Mall in Faro.  It was a huge, modern mall with an upstairs food court that had U.S. chains and many more – several “healthy” choice establishments.



The Elders opted for a big Churrasco lunch since they were starting a fast for the big mission conference tomorrow.  We opted for a lighter lunch at Joshua’s Shoarma Grill.  I had a nice Mediterranean salad with pita/hummus and a mint lemonade, and Merl chose a chicken pita sandwich with                                                                                        fries and lemonade. 

After returning, we visited the Vodaphone office to help with our confusion on how things work.  Merl also made a follow-up phone call to our new friend checking on his commitment status.

Late this evening, I finally started to make a batch of chocolate chip banana bars for the lunch at the meeting tomorrow.  Each of the couple missionaries were asked to bring three dozen cookies.  Got them all baked and packaged before going to bed.